Striking Jones: Roger Moore scores

Any employee is at liberty to refuse to work. It is sometimes the final reluctant act of the desperate and sadly also the all-too frequent solution of the intransigent.

Rarely, if ever, can the decision to refuse labour have been so completely inappropriate to the situation. And it irks me. No, it sickens me and makes me think twice about the hours spent labouring in my own employment to fund such complete and utter morons as Kenwyne Jones. Harsh? If you think so look away now, because I've only just begun.

Here is a young man on the cusp of a prolific career in one of the most overpaid occupations on the planet - sport. Irrespective of the finance generated by football, the subject of the revenue remains a game, offering as much negative to the world as it has positive since its inception.

Playing football does not feed the starving in Africa, does not provide a cure for AIDS, does not further the cause of peace in the Middle-East, nor bring about an end to the war on terror. It is a sport, a game, a distraction.

But rightly, playing football is a career. And, as in all careers, those who are serious about furthering theirs are well within their rights to seek alternative employment, with better prospects and inevitably better pay. To want to do so is only human nature.

Ambition and aspiration drive the most successful in all walks of life, and nowhere more than in sport. But as well as success, personal conduct is a core measure on which so many of us judge our heroes and in this regard, Kenwyne Jones has come up woefully short.

Worse, he has let down those who have supported him (financially, professionally and emotionally) and signalled more evidence, if any were needed, that his profession are as detached from reality as it is possible to be, without being sectioned.

Removal of labour is a serious matter. To my mind it immediately places the employee in breach of contract even if he or his union can demonstrate such a reason that might justify a refusal to work.

Abuse of employer-power, abuse towards the individual, bullying, inequity of earnings, failure to adequately reward and recognise effort - these are just a smattering of the reality of everyday employment for many who have no union to support their innermost desire to remove their labour as a protest against genuine and heart-rending injustice.

It is a great personal regret of mine that unions (often by their own hypocrisy) have alienated the white-collar classes and leave the blue-collar classes in a state of permanent misapprehension because there are some very poor employers around, and some of our most vulnerable employees do need greater protection from less benevolent bosses. Does Jones require such protection? I wonder.

When a footballer signs a contract he offers his services in return for financial compensation, significant compensation. He does so in the full knowledge that his value might increase or decrease depending on a whole host of factors including, but not restricted to, his own performance.

He signs his contract with full knowledge of its entire obligations. He must do, because he has an agent and a lawyer specifically qualified in such undertakings - unlike so many of us who simply take our employers at 'their word' and learn later the costliness of trust.

Being under contract and being invited to and playing regularly, on what possible basis can Jones ask not to work? One basis. He knows other clubs value his services as highly as we do and are prepared to pay handsomely for them. And, we must assume, he reasons that disruptive behaviour is the likeliest way to speed his departure when his employer is reluctant to let him go.

Whether the way in which footballers are effectively employed as 'assets' and valued as such is fair or just, is not an argument I am qualified to answer. But since the rules exist, we must expect all parties to abide by them. And if your transfer request is refused, you get on and work to the remainder of your contract. Simple. At that point you can even exercise a right to walk away. This is the risk the club takes for refusing to sell.

So I have a message to George Burley and the board of Southampton Football Club. If Kenwyne Jones wants a war, let him have one. Dock his salary by the requisite amount for his removal of labour. Refuse to select him. Let him, as they used to say before footballers retained all the power in the game, rot in the reserves. And let his union, the mighty PFA, justify his 'strike'.

In 12 months time ask Championship football fans about the Jones who no longer plays. And see whom they have more memory of and sympathy for. The young man killed dramatically and tragically at the outset of his career. Or the young man who chose to turn a transfer into a drama and in so doing wrote his own football obituary. Kenwyne Jones, hang your head in shame.